My Life in an Interracial Marriage and Family ~ It's been 25 years of fun; learning, growing, laughing & crying with each other. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Progress.....

Sculpture Garden SFSU

It's all about college tours at the Wise house right now. We just returned from San Francisco State University, which is Tatiana's first choice for college. She chose SFSU for many reasons; The first being their dance program which is her major, the second because she loves the city, and the third because of the culture and diversity that SFSU offers.

Prior to going to San Fran we visited a couple of other campuses. One of the recent campus tours we went on was a total bust, and originally it was her second choice! From the very first moment we drove into the parking lot Tatiana said, "I'm not feeling this campus at all." The entire day went that way. It was just a vibe that she had, or actually lack thereof. Then we went to SFSU and her reaction was the polar opposite! Tatiana stepped onto campus and instantaneously smiled from ear to ear. She was home. Jamie even said, "I can totally see you going to school and living here. This is you." At this point we had only been there for, oh, about five minutes! It was like the campus had a heartbeat of its own. It was full of life, color, music, laughter, beautiful architecture, people from all over and so much more! Jamie and I were ready to go back in time and attend school with her. She would be horrified and would quickly veto us, but it sure sounded like a good idea, at least to us!

One of the things that is not only important to Tatiana but important to us as parents of a mixed race child, is that she goes to a university that is filled with diversity. To say that SFSU is diverse would be an understatement. It lives and breathes diversity! The students that attend SFSU are from every race and religion you can imagine. We got a very clear picture of that when we walked to the heart of the campus which is called Malcom X Plaza. The plaza is filled with music and festivities and also houses the Cesar Chavez Student Center. The more we walked and the more we saw, the more we fell in love with the campus and all it had to offer. Notice I keep saying we. We truly fell in love with SFSU right along with her and for her. It is such an exciting time in her life! The diversity clincher was when we were on the tour and the guide told us about the College of Ethnic Studies. This is the only program of its kind in the nation and SFSU offers it. Hello diversity!

Needless to say by the time we were done with the tour and our day spent on campus, Tatiana was ready to move in. Instead she did the next best thing. She applied. The applications for Fall 2012 opened up the following day, so she jumped online, filled out the application, went over it with a fine tooth comb and hit submit! While she was filling out her info., this time I had a smile from ear to ear, not only because I was so excited for her, but also because I saw that she was able to choose two or more races/ethnicity's as her race on the application. I was thrilled! Back in the day when Tat was entering kindergarten I had to choose one race and one race only. I will never forget how that made me feel. Now, not only was there an option for two races, but when she got to the gender section the options were male, female, transgender, or non-gender specific. How cool is that!? I had never seen that on any application before. My how times have changed. I love it! Equality all the way around.

9 comments:

Sounds like a match made in heaven. She's going to LOVE S.F. and you will too when you go visit her. Or are you moving there? :-))So diversified, you betcha, a true melting pot. I love the culture and the people. They're so friendly. Every time I visit, I feel that I have come home too. Wishing her all the very best.

Thank you for reading Maxee! It's so true. Such a melting pot and sooo friendly. I would move there in a heartbeat. Maybe down the road. Tatiana needs her experience first. =) Hugs and Love Maxee.....A.

Amy, I can't find any contact info here on your site but just had to say hello. I feel like maybe we have spoken before...not sure. We have so many similarities: We also just had our nineteenth, our oldest is almost your daughter's age, I am from Vancouver/Portland Metro area and hubby is from California (LA), and lastly, I am also a blogger and contribute to other sites as well. I hope you have some time to stop by my blog. I hope we can keep in touch.

I'm sad to hear about the customs issues. The bad apples that have made it difficult for the good. Ugh! I'm used to it all now...the taking off the shoes, jewelry, belts; the no liquids, the baggies, and on and on...it becomes habit. Don't ever let the inconvenience that the terroists have caused stop you from flying here and having a WONDERFUL time!!

You will LOVE San Fran! Truly. It is my second fav city on earth. First in the U.S.

Have fun in BC...it's beautiful!!!

Yes you are so right when the connection is there you just know it! It's pretty cool.